We're on Xenforo!

[Z'zgashi]

I would like to see you do it faster.

Stop being such a douchebag because you're buttmad about one of the 34567876543 possible means of communication between your circle-jerk crew being cut off temporarily.

First off, I have converted over 15 years of my work's website and sales information from one system to another, and after proper preparation, planning, and set up, the conversion took just under 50 hours. There were NO problems, NOTHING was missing, and the new program and files worked smoothly right from the get go. There were multiple terabytes worth of information (somewhere around 5 terabytes) and it only took that long and had NO problems. I can guarantee SWF has less than that data wise, and its taken more than double the time with a laundry list of problems.

Im just annoyed because they obviously didnt prepare enough for the change if theyre having this many problems. They shouldve at LEAST done a test switch with a test run with some little forum with a little of everything in it, and seen what conversion problems there were, what was working and what wasnt, etc. And if they DID do this, then they didnt do it right and forgot to check settings, look for problems, add stuff to the initial test, etc. And if Bio is doing this 'all alone' like he said he is, then, mind my french, but hes ****ing stupid. You cant switch over this much stuff alone without it taking WAY too much time. He has staff for a reason, have them help. And if he needs even more help, there are how many thousands of people on this site? Im sure at least a few of them could help in some way.

And Social Groups arent the only problem, theyre just the main problem for me. Theres quite a list of problems, like the site being stupidly slow all the time, tons of BB code both missing and not even working in areas it used to, lots of things like editing posts is slower and more difficult now, the watched threads/user cp is FAR inferior from the previous version due to it lacking things it had before and being less convenient to get to, etc. And thats not even counting the laundry list of little things that, while they dont matter usage wise, are missing (like smilies, postbits, etc), the sites actual design and set up (not the skin, although thats awful too) is bad (poorly defined separations between posts and signatures, ribbons being WAY too much of a focal point, missing icons everywhere, etc), and I could go on and on, but then this would be a MASSIVE wall of text that would require me to collapse it due to how big it would be (which I couldnt even do if I tried because collapse tags dont work). Also, there are TONS of issues for people using different browsers, using phones and ipods, and the like.

This was just done REALLY sloppily, and it isnt even any better either. Sure, in future it most likely will be, but they shouldve planned ahead far better than they did, and if they werent ready for the switch, they shouldve just delayed the switch until they were ready, as right now its just a big jumbled mess, making people annoyed/frustrated, and Im sure is a massive headache for the current staff. This switch was executed VERY poorly.

 

[deepseadiva]

They should've just stayed with the old forum. There was nothing wrong with it outside of maybe blogs being derpy and groups being clunky and unused.

There is so much ignorance in this post I can't even

 

[Frostwraith]

And instead of posting constructive criticism, people simply whine over and over...

I'd also like to point out that posts made at the Forum Games board is now counting towards total post count and signatures are also posted there.

 

[deepseadiva]

Mo-ney back! Mo-ney back!

 

[John2k4]

Zz did you even read my post? Sure seems like not.

It's nice that you helped a company move data and such, but did you have to deal with a major difference between forum softwares, and plugins alike?

We had our preparation, and planning. We had a development Xenforo forum set up for a while, just to test things out and make sure there was nothing horrible broken.

Thinking on it, all the core functionality transferred great. That would just be the posts and the users. If we did not have all sorts of oddball vB plugins that were providing small functionalities here and there, and were just a plain and basic forum, then there would be no problems with moving to this new software. As it stands, posting and such work great. You're trying to make callouts on not having all these extra forum things working straight out of the gate, when they were held together with spit and duct tape on the old forums.

We got the major plugins (friends, user blogs, and media gallery) working, and they work fine. The bumps in the road lie in the "special" plugins that were cobbled together on the old vB software.

Here's the thing. As I already stated, these did not exist elsewhere for Xenforo, and therefore we had no software to use for it.

For your other point - we've had a team of about five working on the forum switch. It's not just been solely Bionic, but he has been doing the work for the importers. We'd love to have additional help with programming things, but PHP/CSS coders who are willing to work for free and donate their time are few and far between.


--

I don't want to be ranting, but please try to help us out instead of just throwing **** everywhere and whining.


----

@Frost - We've got that on our list.

 

[Z'zgashi]

Ive been involved in forum administration so I know it somewhat, but I wasnt trying to say I was an expert on the fact, only give a comparison.

And while its awesome that you did SOME preparations, it obviously still wasnt enough if there are this many problems. And your 'bumps in the road' shouldve been figured out BEFORE the switch, not after, which is the main thing Im getting at.

If they didnt exist in XenForo, you should have already found that out in your testing and preparation, and you shouldve PRE BUILT a replacement and stuck it in once done, not just shoved it into a corner and dealt with it after the switch.

And if you cant get more help, then just give yourselves more time, this isnt a race, no one wouldve cared if you pushed the switch back a month.

And off topic but its really annoying how I cant Alt+S to post anymore, would be awesome to get that back (wink, wink ;p)

 

[AlphaZealot]

Z'zgashi you raise some valid points - we ran into issues, some of which could have been foreseen and others of which could not. The transition was not as smooth as we had hoped, lessons were learned that will be applied the next time we have a significant upgrade (likely in about two-three months with a front page).

The staff is working as hard as possible and improvements are being made continually.

 

[Deleted member]

As long as you're working on solutions, is it possible to add an option for posts per page, and remake posts into individual pages? (I believe this feature is called postbits.) This would help insurmountably viewing the longer threads which now default to 40 posts, carrying at times 20+ images and long-form movesets, making it difficult on the Make Your Move archives. I appreciate you sticking around to answer questions and not dismissing the handful of angry posters, as would some forum moderators.

 

[Wave⁂]

Wow, this thread went to **** in no time flat.

Is it possible to make the top bar more responsive? Half the time I'm not sure if I should hover over "Alerts" or click it to make the thing drop down. It seems natural for there to be some sort of visual feedback as soon as your hover over a "tab", but at the moment it's often really delayed or occasionally not present at all, which is really disorienting.

 

[♖♘♗♔♕♗♘♖]

I may not have expressed this sentiment as well in my first post in this thread, but I really do enjoy using a format other than VBulletin. And for all the "inconvenient" features that exist or don't exist for that matter, I will say that this is a rather unique experience that I haven't experienced in awhile. I'm not sure who the support team was for setting up the site and transferring content over aside from Bionic, John, and Alpha but I am impressed by what was accomplished and feel that the delay was understandable given my impression that this was a volunteer effort and not some professional undertaking.

 

[KrIsP!]

I have an issue with watched threads. It works as a user cp alternate but it doesn't remember what has been read since the site went down. As such it seems I have a million unread watched threads and I can't differentiate between what's actually new and what's not unless its at the very top.

Anyway to just make everything read that way the only things I see there are what is posted after that? I think that should be done for everyone, just reset it without deleting our watched threads if possible and we'll get new posts as they come in.

 

[John2k4]

You could mark all forums as read, at the top of the page.

 

[John2k4]

You could mark all forums as read, at the top of the page.

 

[Claire Diviner]

Personally, for what it is, I'd say this move is a step up from VBulletin. Yeah, there are things that need work, but to act like the admins and other volunteers are going to ignore those seems pretty ignorant. I mean, for me, as long as I can still post and commute with the Smash community, that's what should matter in the long run, no?

 

[GHNeko]

Laughing at entitled members being entitled and complaining over volunteer work.

Pretty sure Smashboards is not a priority in anyone's life except maybe AZ's. (Seeing as he owns the place and helps run the community.)


I'd like to bring to like that Jaxel @ 8wayrun is working on a XenForo Gaming Ladder-type plugin. If that ever gets finished, it'd be awesome to see that here.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

What is all this trophy business even.

Also, will collapsible forums on the main page return. I liked being able to access Media Metropolis by hiding all the boring Smash forums.

 

[Claire Diviner]

Speaking of which, there's a typo in the description for the "We Salute You!" trophy. The description reads "we all move one some day...", when it should read "we all move on some day...". Just thought I'd point that out.

 

[standardtoaster]

They're working on that, tery.


Reposting these since I'm not sure John or Bio saw these.

If a thread has new posts (topic is bolded) and you click it, it takes you to the first unread post. Why does it do that? It should take you to the first page. If you want the first unread post you can click the blue orb next to the title or click "first unread post" button in the topic.

Alerts about new posts in threads still show even if you read all the new posts in a thread.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

They're working on that, tery.

Hey I remember you! But okay, if it's one of the many to remain then I'll take your / their word for it.

 

[Vinylic.]

If generations sapphire returned, I'll be veeery happy.

Also, don't forget about adding the 3ds fc into info, Bio!

 

[ndayday]

What is all this trophy business even.

I like them, it makes this seem like a game! You get one for becoming a moderator. Really had to grind for that one.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

But like, where does it all converge to? Do we get to cash in points for prizes of sort? Otherwise it just seems like more arbitrary numbers to go along with other arbitrary numbers.

 

[ndayday]

I have no idea really, but it seems like a replacement for awards. Wouldn't be surprised if that's what things like ToTM in the DR change to etc.

 

[Claire Diviner]

I like them, it makes this seem like a game! You get one for becoming a moderator. Really had to grind for that one.

As a member of the IBWC, we're technically mods, so I guess we qualify for those trophies.

But like, where does it all converge to? Do we get to cash in points for prizes of sort? Otherwise it just seems like more arbitrary numbers to go along with other arbitrary numbers.

Probably bragging rights in the same manner as XBOX Achievement points.

 

[Terywj [태리]]

I have no idea really, but it seems like a replacement for awards. Wouldn't be surprised if that's what things like ToTM in the DR change to etc.

Probably bragging rights in the same manner as XBOX Achievement points.

In that case I'd like to trade 500 of my points for a sandwich.

 

[Frostwraith]

I see that the

Spoiler

tags no longer work, instead being the [ collapse] tags again!

[collapse="Yay, collapse tags!"]Congraturation, mods ! You're winner ![/collapse]

The site's been slow sometimes... probably because of the tweaks being done to both site and servers.

 

[Spelt]

I would rather have spoilers back the way they used to be, but eh, it's a pretty minute complaint. I just miss being able to put words/phrases in spoilers in the middle of my sentences.

 

[John2k4]

Frost beat me to it; changed

Spoiler

tags to use the [collapse] syntax.

Still working out blackout text to use for the

Spoiler

tags.

 

[Vinylic.]

After I saw the two previews last page, I'm pretty hyped.
Everything's going great so far, and I'm barely seeing any errors despite the amount of time I have to wait for the pages to load.

 

[Lovage]

i complained about this earlier but dunno if anyone responded

are collapsible forums on the forum index coming back?

 

[Terywj [태리]]

I asked about it and it's one of those "in progress."

 

[John2k4]

I asked about it and it's one of those "in progress."

Implemented for the default skin. Currently working on adding it to the other skins now.

Spoiler

 

[Muhti]

I don't have my ToTM award listed on my profile.

More serious:

Will a mobile site be made soon for SWF? Or an app?

 

[TheCrimsonBlur]

This has probably been asked already, but just wondering, is there a way to turn off avatars/images? It used to be a feature in user CP.

I need it to browse at work :/

 

[Claire Diviner]

Will a mobile site be made soon for SWF? Or an app?

An app would be the most convenient thing for those who are mobile users (myself included). And with the premium money now in better hands, hopefully it can be used to fund a possible app?

 

[bubbaking]

On another note, that layout screamed anything but professional, which is definitely not the message a big-time site like this wants to be putting out there.

Cutting in here, wasn't this fine, honestly, because Vibrant was an optional skin?

This font is way better. Thanks for taking care of that. I didn't even notice it right away because it WASN'T standing out, as opposed to the old font which was annoying me in every post.

The tippy typey box still has the old font, but I can live with that.

Alright, I'm going to say something about this now. I was actually PERFECTLY fine with the 'old' default font (the one right before this one). Now, one can barely tell that a word has been italicized 'cause EVERYTHING looks 'italicized'. I bet you didn't even know that the word "Now" in my previous sentence was italicized. Oh sure, you can see it now that I told you, but I doubt that you would have caught it at first glance.

Edit: Actually, you STILL can't see it, and you really can't see that this entire sentence is italicized either.

Sapphire when?
Also, I wonder if posting in threads automatically puts it in my.... eck watched threadsnow.

That was actually an option in the old SWF as well, and I believe you can turn it off.

Stop being such a douchebag because you're buttmad about one of the 34567876543 possible means of communication between your circle-jerk crew being cut off temporarily.

To be perfectly fair, you were kind of being, as you put it, a "douchebag" with the way you were bashing that Vibrant skin. Just thought I'd point that out. Carry on!

 

[Strong Badam]

Suggestion: A dislike button for posts. I read far too many ****ty posts and more poster interaction via feedback can only improve the content of members.

 

[John2k4]

I can rework and create a custom Flexile or Neo skin that has no avatars in it. Would need to check on removing other images (signatures, etc).

I believe Tapatalk works for Xenforo. I have not tested it myself.

 

[bubbaking]

Dislike, lolz. The like system we already have is dumb. We shouldn't have to worry about the way you like to read posts. No offense, but the phrase "improve the content of members" sounds so.....arrogant. If you have something to say about someone's post, you should say it to his face, via a reply or a PM. That's what discussion is for. A "dislike" actually gives no feedback at all.

To the developers of the new Xenforo SWF, please do not do what Smashmods did and add some sort of user-to-user rating system. It was so facetious and clearly put personal bias above all else in discussion.

 

[John2k4]

To my knowledge, the "Like" feature is pretty much coded into the core, and would be difficult to modify/remove.